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Friday, November 9, 2012

Petraeus resigns, cites extramarital affair

As first reported by NBC News, Petraeus disclosed the affair in a
letter released to the CIA work force on Friday afternoon, writing:
"Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of
an organization such as ours."

Petraeus told President Barack
Obama of his affair and offered his resignation during a meeting
Thursday, a senior official told NBC News. In a phone call on Friday,
Obama accepted the resignation, the official said.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chair of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, told NBC News that Petraeus’s personal mistake should not
have led to his departure.

“I would have stood up for him,”
Feinstein said in response to his indiscretion. “I wanted him to
continue. He was good, he loved the work, and he had a command of
intelligence issues second to none.”

Feinstein said she respects Obama’s decision to accept the Petraeus resignation, but wishes he hadn’t.
She
also said Petraeus will not need to testify at hearings she is chairing
next week into the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in
the attack.